Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Suren Papikyan crudely violated the procedure for campaigning for the referendum. This is what human rights activist Ruben Melikyan wrote on his Facebook page, touching upon the speech that Suren Papikyan gave during the question-and-answer session with government officials in parliament today.

He particularly wrote the following:

“Acting ex officio, as member of the Government of Armenia, and participating in the procedure prescribed by Article 112 of the Constitution of Armenia (question-and-answer session between deputies and members of government), Suren Papikyan directly carried out the YES campaign for the referendum for constitutional amendments from the podium of the National Assembly.

The possible “explanation” that this happened after the end of the working day (after 6 p.m.) and that this means campaigning was permitted, is completely groundless because if a person acts ex officio (as an official), as in this case, the day or hour doesn’t matter. We state that this is a crude violation of the Constitutional Law “On referendum”. We also state that opposition MP Gevorg Gorgisyan gave an adequate evaluation of the fact.”